I know I may be a bit slow here but I recently found out that the 357 sig uses 9mm bullets and not 357 bullets. I am wondering what the reason is. For me half of the fun of the 357 magnum is the bullet verity. Without much looking you can find factory loaded ammo with ammo ranging from 110 grain to 200 grain. I have seen reloads from 90 grains up to 230 grains.

Unfortunately for the 357 sig is limited to 150ish grains at the heavy end.

The 357 sig was developed from a 40 S&W case. The short neck and smaller case do not work with heavy bullets like the 357 mag uses. Heavy bullets (longer) would create very hi pressure if loaded to the required overall length. To shoot heavy bullets you would have to start with a 10 mm case, but then you would not be able to use guns designed for the 9mm or 40 S&W cartage length. The 357 sig is very good at what it was designed to do, compete with the 125 gr. 357 mag load.

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The .357 SIG caliber was never intended to match the .357 Mag across the board. It was designed to approximately duplicate what many consider the most effective anti-personnel .357 Mag load- the 125-grain JHP.

There's a little room for bullet weight variations in the SIG caliber, but nothing like the Mag.

There is no reason not to SHOOT a .40 with light fast bullet.
But Sigarms and the ammo companies wanted something else to SELL.
The .357x125 revolver had a great reputation so they offer a similar autopistol for the Internet Age.

The .357 Sig was originally designed for one purpose in mind -- to give police who were still holding on to their .357 Magnum revolvers a semi-auto cartridge that would emulate the performance of one round -- Remington's 125-gr. semi-jacketed hollow point, which at that time had a well proven track record as an excellent fight stopper.

It wasn't designed for versatility, or for sporting purposes. It was conceived of and promoted as a police and defensive cartridge.

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Here's what I don't get. Why the .357 sig at all? Why not just shoot the .40sw?

I'm a .40 fan & IMO it's one of the best all around calibers, but the .357sig does have a penetration advantage, especially when it comes to sheet metal and automotive glass. Right now the .40 & .357sig are two of the most popular LE calibers in use in the U.S. The TN Highway Patrol, for example, now uses .357sig exclusively in their service pistols.

The .357 Sig round is exactly what sheepman, DPris, Mike, SRH78 and insaneranger, in their various ways, said it is. Designed by Ted Rowe of Sig Sauer and Federal Cartridge to replicate the performance of the deservedly popular 125gr .357 mag loading... and to provide superior hard barrier penetration from a duty grade, semi-auto handgun, something the .357 Sig does quite well.

The .357x125 revolver had a great reputation so they offer a similar autopistol for the Internet Age.

Not to be nitpicky but the .357 Sig was introduced in 1994. I think most would place that a few years before the beginnings of the "internet age".

The 40S&W was introduced in 1990. One of the objections to the 10mm as a service round was that the guns needed to be large and powerful ones. The first S&W guns chambered in 10mm for the FBI were larger and heavier than their 9mm sidearms. So if you could shorten the 10mm to a round that could fit in the same size guns as the 9mm did. Well they thought, you might have something. They did and it took off like a rocket.

The Sig came 4 years later and was chambered in the Sig P229. Since the idea of creating a round that would work in guns the same size as the 9mm had proven so successful with the 40 S&W... well why not do it again. The idea for it came from the 30 Luger round and efforts like the .38-45. There are two basic ways to make a round more powerful: stretch it out, but the 10mm already existed, or place a smaller bullet in a necked down case. That would work and it did. The 9mm bullet was a natural. It was heck of fast.

They could have called it the 9mm Magnum, or the 9mm Super but in an interesting coincidence a couple of fellas wrote a book promoting the "One Shot Stop" concept and promoting the idea that some of the 125 gr. loads for the .357 Magnum were better stoppers. So the name .357 Sig was easy as well and so was a promotion campaign.

But the .357 Sig languished some in the shadow of it's bigger brother. It did so for a number of years. Part of it may have been that the 9mm bullets broke up on impact at higher velocities. It did not provide better barrier penetration over what they had. It took awhile to work that out. Part may have been the bottle necked shape which, in the U.S., have never been too popular in handguns. Part may have been that the 40 was new, etc. But it did languish.

Interest in the round stepped up some after a few agencies picked it up. Seems about 2 years ago the ammo manufacturers began a major push to spark interest in it. More articles in gun mags and threads begun on gun forums.

It's a good round and needs no extra hyping, though some do, and make exaggerated claims for it. It may gain some in popularity.

I should also point out a couple things that no one else brought up. First the .357 sig uses the .355 bullet, but the 125 grain Gold Dot it the type used in the .357 magnum modified to .355. The .355 bullet 124 gr Gold Dot it the 9mm type. The two type though differant are meant to operate at differant velocities.

Second. On an all-things-being-equal basis the .357 is a more accurate round than the .40 S&W which despite being a fine round it not know for accuracy. Now don't write and tell me that your .40 S&W is super accurate, because that's not what I am saying. Take two of he same gun, put a .357 sig barrel in one and a .40 in the other. Work up a good load for each using the same type of bullet, etc, etc and the .357 sig will be more accurate.

Third a little thing called Sectional Density. If you are shooting a 135 gr .40, and a 135 gr .357 sig (though I have not seen one I am sure there is one somewhere) the .357 bullet will be longer, this means more bearing surface in the rifling, and less air resistance passing through air. When the bullets hit their targets the bullet with the greater SD will penetrate deeper.

Fourth Flatter shooting. A person with a little experience and some practice can easily hit a paper plate at one hundred yards with the .357 sig. I have seen it done and done in myself. We had a number of people at the range try and hit a 100 yard target with the caliber and most were able to hit the target in only 1-3 shots. we tried this will the .45, .40, and 9mm and though a few people could tag the target after a few rounds by walking them in most just wasted the ammo. I have total confidence that i could head shoot a Terrorist, or insurgent at 50 yards with the handgun (I have several .357 sigs A Glock 32, Glock 22 w/ conversion, and sig P226) I like the most, which is in this caliber my P226.

Strangely the .357 sig does not act in the same manner as teh old .357 125 grain load. The Magnum 125's would penetrate about eight inches and fragment, dumping a large amount of energy into the target. The .357 load enters, expands and pentrates (with the 125 gr Gold Dot) about 14 inches and as a large permanate and tempoary wound cavity. So though the external ballistics of the two loads are very close, their therminal ballitsics differ, yet both are very good at stopping bad guys. Bringing the .40 S&W into the mix its also performs (with 135gr loads) in a simular fasion to both of the .357 loads on the terminal end of things. The only differance that of the three loads the .357 sig does what it does even if passing into a car through glass, where as teh 135 .40 and the 125 .357 magnum both dump lots of energy and break up when hitting auto glass. so for the average person any of these three loads will do a great job (or as well as a handgun round can) in most situations. The penetration through auto glass however is why many police departments went to the .357 sig load. Just a simple fact that alot of police shootings happen around cars.

Since your life if the one on the line the choice of which load you carry is yours. I would feel comfortable with any of the three. I hope I helped informed your decision.

The .357 Sig is one of many cartridges whos nominal bullet diameter is not based on actual bullet diameter. The .303 Savage is another, though a few of the early .303 Savage rifles had bores closer to .310-.311.
The various .221, .223, .224, etc cartridges that all use the same bullet size are examples, while the .22 Savage HiPower uses a .228 bullet but is simply refered to as a .22.
If they'd called the .357 Sig a 9mm magnum rimless it wouldn't have had the same level of sales appeal and would be easily confused with the 9mm Winchester magnum, which is a very different cartridge altogether.

Most just go with a +p 9mm and be done with it. The main selling point to the departments when the 357Sig came out was its feeding reliability for being a bottle neck cartrage.
The 40 and 9mm are still the top LE caliber. The 357Sig and 45GAP are niche calibers that I would bet will fade away like so many others before it.

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The 40 and 9mm are still the top LE caliber. The 357Sig and 45GAP are niche calibers that I would bet will fade away like so many others before it.

We can only hope.

Personally, I find the 9x23 Winchester a far superior round to either the 357 Sig or the 40 S&W. The case is 0.035 inches longer than the proprietary Sig round and 0.05 inches longer than the 10mm Short. It fits fine in a grip the size of a 1911, but is probably a tad too long for the smaller 9x19/357 Sig frames. Even so, compared to a 357 Mag or 45ACP, it is much more pleasant to shoot.

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